Effects of substrate heating and film thickness on the properties of silver based ZnO multilayer thin films

ZnO/Ag/ZnO multilayer thin films were prepared on glass substrate with various conditions by using facing targets sputtering system. The effects of substrate heating and film thickness on the properties of the silver based multilayers are investigated. As substrate heating causes low nucleation density, we obtained the island structure film at 200degC. From these experiments, a very high sheet resistance of 1.2 times 10⁸ Ohm/sq. and low transmittance of below 40% in the visible are obtained. Multilayer thin films with sheet resistance of about 9 Ohm/sq. and an average transmittance of over 80% in the visible range (400-800 nm) could be prepared when Ag thin film with the optimum thickness was deposited at room temperature.